How would you feel if your employer decided one day to dramatically increase your healthcare costs? How would you feel if the company did this even while it was making hundreds of millions of dollars in profits?
That's the situation for 15,000 unionized Stop & Shop employees across Connecticut. Their contract has expired, and Stop & Shop is playing hardball, citing the recession as a reason to cut health and pension benefits. But the company - part of a multinational conglomerate - is actually doing quite well these days.
Stand with the workers and tell Stop & Shop to treat their employees with the dignity they deserve.
Kevin Lembo is Connecticut's Healthcare Advocate, an independent state official who advocates for patients and their families on health insurance and other aspects of the health care system.
He has written a Commentary piece which is published in the Hartford Courant. I am pasting in a taste of it.
Dean Rohrer illustration
The At-Home Alternative To Nursing Home
Connecticut's approach to long-term care suffers from an extreme case of "business as usual" - a chronic condition that manifests itself in poor and limited service delivery, and continually stressed budgets. The good news is that it's treatable.
I present to you, The Doctor's Option (transcript for the video-impaired below the fold):
This is our video for Organizing for America and the Democratic National Committee's Health Reform Video Challenge. Written/Produced/Directed by Will Urquhart and Mitch Malasky. Starring Yvette Lewis and Dr. Joann Urquhart, MD. A special thanks to David Hart for helping to make this video happen.
If you enjoy this, please go to the video, rate it/comment on it/favorite it and share, share, share. The more attention it gets, the more likely OFA/DNC will pick it for the 20 finalists.
Yes, Ned Lamont may be the most important name in 2009 politics. Right now, it may be a more important name than Barack Obama. Let me explain.
The fight for health care reform comes closer than it has ever been before, and the Republican party continues to demonstrate that no compromise, not even tort reform, will draw a single Republican vote. At this point, the last thing standing between us and a strong health care bill is conservative or moderate Democrats. The progressive blogosphere has drawn a line in the sand. And I am reminded of 2006, and the Lieberman vs Lamont primary. I am reminded that when progressives draw a line in the sand on the most important issues to voters, they will follow through on holding politicians accountable.
Please take a moment and go to the website right now to vote - you can see from the initial results that their misleading language is confusing to people.
SustiNet has passed in the CGA with no help from the Republican "Party of NO" in the Senate.
Awaiting the signature or veto of the Governor. A letter from Juan Figueroa follows:
Dear Michael:
Wow. That's all I can say. I am at the Capitol and wanted to let you know that SustiNet (H.B. 6600) has just passed out of the Senate 23 - 12.
I don't have to tell you that this is a historic moment for all of us. We weren't kidding when we said that SustiNet was the "most comprehensive health care proposal before the legislature." And now, Connecticut is positioned to set an example for the rest of the nation.
It's not often that elected leaders get to enact major reforms of this magnitude. The people of Connecticut delivered a clear message to the House and Senate -- and they responded. Now Governor Rell has the opportunity to sign SustiNet into law and deliver health care we can all count on to everyone in Connecticut.
This victory could not have happened without you -- the phone calls and emails worked. And while we still have a lot of work to do to ensure that Governor Rell signs this legislation, I think we should all take a moment and celebrate how close we are to quality, affordable health care for everyone.
Thank you,
Juan A. Figueroa
President
Universal Health Care Foundation of Connecticut
Demonstration at Gov. Rell's Mansion Organized by COMA-CT, they will gather at Gov. Rell's manison in Hartford to send her a clear message that we are serious about health care reform in CT. She has ignored us for too long. We will join forces to send a clear message that we can no longer wait for universal health care.
Today from 5:45 pm To 7:30 pm.
I put it on the calendar so there is more event info here, including a Google map for ya. :)
Sadly, I will not be able to make it there but I posted it for any of you that might have the time.
From the Susan Bysiewicz newsletter (w/some boldness and slight editing done boldly):
Bysiewicz & Donovan to Host Health Care Round Table for Small Businesses
Please join House Majority Leader Chris Donovan and me for a business roundtable discussion regarding the Connecticut Health Care Partnership proposal.
Overall, this proposal would invite municipal employees to voluntarily participate in the state employee health care plan pool. In addition, we are hoping to launch a pilot program for small businesses and non-profits to enable their participation in the state pool. A pilot program will determine how best to administer a statewide plan and will also provide a boost to the state and local economy by reducing your health care costs. The proposal has been submitted to the General Assembly for consideration during the 2008 legislative session.
On Thursday I went to the rally at Aetna's headquarters in Hartford. It was great to see a large gathering there to show Aetna that it cannot continue to get away with huge profits while cost sky-rocket. Anyways, I got a good response to the video I posted of the McCain rally on February 3rd, so I figured I would post a video of this event. Luis Cotto, elected in November to Hartford's City Council under the Working Families Party, was in attendance and gave a short speech.
How can Aetna, which claims to be on the side of reform, continue to make larger profits every year will costs keep going up? If the leadership at Aetna truly believes in reforming our broken system, they can put a hold on the denials. They have the ability to provide quality, affordable healthcare for almost everyone. They also have the ability to reap profits from a system that kills 18,000 Americans every year. So far, their choice is making us sick.
I just read a fascinating report that addresses inherent flaws of relying on employers to provide and facilitate health insurance. A major focus of the report is that it is nearly impossible for small businesses to provide coverage of comparable quality to large companies, if they can afford to do it at all. One result of this fact is that because minorities and low income workers are dispraportionately employed by small business, the current system is biased against these groups.
The report offers very sensible and easily implemented solutions that could greatly reduce the number of uninsured workers. One idea proposes tax credit options to make healthcare more affordable for low income workers. The current system, under which health insurance is paid for with pre-tax income unfairly benefits the wealthy. From the report:
Goal #1: Financial assistance to families for health insurance coverage should be based on need.
As noted earlier, many lower-paid employees in small firms face a subsidy double-whammy. Those who are offered insurance are paid less and thus get a much smaller tax benefit than upper-income employees through the exclusion from taxable income of employer-sponsored health benefits. Many have no employer-sponsored insurance at all, and if they purchase their own insurance, they typically receive no tax break.
So, which wignut organization issued the report stating that:
-Our health insurance system discriminates against minorites and low income families?
-Current tax structure regarding healthcare costs unfairly benefits the wealthy?
-Our nation really needs to find solutions for reducing the number of uninsured?
-We should allow private groups, including unions, to create insurance pools as alternatives to employer plans?
If you haven't guessed by now, this all came from those liberal wackos at...
(Normally I am loathe to front-page not directly related Connecticut stories but allow me in this instance to make an exception.--Scarce)
In today's Hartford Courant there was a rather nondescript story filed ironically in the Business section. It began like this:
As a protest was being staged against CIGNA HealthCare on Thursday, the company reversed its denial and agreed to pay for a liver transplant for a California girl who is critically ill.
CIGNA had initially refused to cover the transplant for Nataline Sarkisyan, calling it experimental in her case. The 17-year-old, who has recurring leukemia, has been on a waiting list for a new liver because she developed complications after a bone marrow transplant and chemotherapy.
Late last night Nataline died.
GLENDALE, Calif.(CBS) ― A 17-year-old girl from Northridge died Thursday night, just hours after insurance giant CIGNA reversed itself and agreed to approve a liver transplant for the cancer survivor.
CIGNA declined to pay for the transplant for Nataline Sarkisyan because her plan does not cover "experimental, investigational and unproven services," her doctors said.
The reversal was announced at the rally attended by a crowd estimated by organizers at 150. Hundreds of telephone callers also clogged lines at CIGNA offices around the nation Thursday on Nataline's behalf.
This blog is a response to an article found today in the New York Times, Insurers Seek Bigger Reach in Coverage. Apparently, the insurance industry is proposing their own ideas to reform our broken healthcare system and cover more people. What is unique about this is that it is one of the first times that the industry will admit that our system is not perfect. However, this article left me laughing at how ridiculous these greedy, heartless bastards are. Let us look at the plan proposed by the largest impediment to healthcare reform, sorry, I mean by the healthcare industry.
"The proposals, approved by a board of the industry's main trade group, would make it harder for insurers to cancel policies or deny coverage to people with pre-existing medical conditions. The steps would also limit the premiums that could be charged for such people."
That sounds great, especially the part about not denying coverage to sick people (or, as I like to call them, the ones that need healthcare the most). As an organizer who has knocked on doors five-to-seven days-a-week on healthcare campaigns, I wonder what took them so long to realize that sick people need healthcare. My answer came one sentence later...
"The trade group also called on states to provide individual coverage for people who were likely to incur very high medical bills. The effort is meant to help address the problem of 47 million Americans without health coverage. And it signals a willingness by insurers to abandon practices that have seemed aimed at excluding all but the healthiest individuals."
Now I get. The healthcare industry will cover sick people, as long as someone else pays for it. I can understand that I guess. As a supporter of a single payer healthcare system, I call on the government to fund healthcare for everyone just like the fire department. However, the healthcare industry is absolutely against that because they make too much money off covering healthy people (Aetna made around $451 million in profit in only the second quarter of 2007, a $15 million increase over the first quarter. Congrats on turning down even more cancer treatments!). How does this signal "a willingness by insurers to abandon practices that have seemed aimed at excluding all but the healthiest individuals?" These are the same people that have opposed every healthcare reform campaign, even Clinton's back in 1992. However, they explain that very well.
Karen Ignagni, the chief executive of the trade group, America's Health Insurance Plans said that, "What's different than in 1992 is we as an industry did not have a proposal of our own." The only reason that they did not have a proposal of their own, is because they were too busy spreading the lie that our system is the best in the world, and any change would lead to a decrease in quality. The real difference between now and then is that it is now widely recognized that our healthcare industry is a major part of the problem. The real difference is that the industry finds it worthwhile to save face through a week signal of good intentions. How do I know? Just take a look at another quote from the same article; "The industry's announcement comes at a time when dozens of states are already considering some kind of health reform and insurers are increasingly being vilified by the Democratic presidential candidates." Maybe that is just a coincidence. What I would like to know, however, is what sacrifice the industry is willing to make for the good of our nation. Where do the huge profits being made by executives come into the equation? If these executives are only willing to insure the sick as long as it does not hamper their ability to make a profit, maybe that is exactly the reason that profit should have nothing to do with healthcare... Nothing!
For months, Kim and I have talked about watching Michael Moore's documentary 'Sicko', but never gotten around to it. When it first came out, we invited various State Reps near where we lived to come see it with us. They all declined. Perhaps they were embarrassed about having failed to pass meaningful healthcare reform last session. They should be.
What got us to do it this time, was Democracy for America holding Sicko Houseparties. We didn't try as hard to invite State Reps to attend this time. We had too many other things going on. We did managed to contact one State Rep, who did not attend.
But we invited all 187 of them out to the movies last Friday night. The reason? Well, we think there's a lot left to be done on healthcare that the legislature just didn't accomplish this year. We need comprehensive reforms of our healthcare system, not just short term band aids.
And no one conveys that urgency like Michael Moore in his new film Sicko.
So we invited our legislators out on a date, as part of the haveyouseensicko.org campaign to get all of CT's legislators to see the movie Sicko before the start of the next session. We're not asking for anything big. Not a promise or a vote, just to keep an open mind, and come see a movie.
And on Friday, 6 legislators (and 50 movies viewers to keep them company) took us up on our offer at the Bowtie Cinema in Hartford. (And tremendous thanks to the movie theater's staff for being so accommodating).
Keep reading for lots of photos and a wrap up of what happened and who came.
(Making progress on getting CT legislators to see Sicko -- have you emailed your legislators yet? If you've seen Sicko, share your thoughts in the comments! - promoted by Maura)
Have you seen Sicko yet? Well, so far 8 legislators have. And 179 haven't.
O'Brien, a great State Rep. and a blogger to boot, (see his blog) was the most recent legislator to send in a review.
He really takes the insurance industry in this state to task.
Of course, these denials of health care and inefficiencies are not, as the insurance industry would have us believe, to keep insurance jobs in our state. Despite the reputable and thorough economic analysis showing that reforming our health care coverage system would save the people and businesses of our state hundreds of millions of dollars, increase the number of jobs in Connecticut and free up a billion dollars for Connecticut families, insurance companies had the audacity this past year to make their employees feel like their jobs would be at risk if state legislators did the right thing for the people of the state on health care. This audacity was despite the fact that these companies have never hesitated to layoff Connecticut workers in order to increase their own profits.
You can read the whole review here. (And then make sure to email your State Rep. and Senator and ask why they haven't seen it yet, and then send the site along to your friends to do the same.)
And here's the list of legislators who've seen the movie so far:
Rep. David McCluskey - 20th
Rep. John Geragosian - 25th
Rep. Joan Lewis - 8th
Rep. Denise Merrill - 54th
Rep. Tim O'Brien - 24th
Rep. Melissa Olson - 46th
Rep. Elizabeth Ritter - 38th
Rep. Elissa Wright - 41st
In this year's session, the legislature disappointed us on healthcare. Rather than pursuing real, substantive reform, they settled on a band-aid that doesn't really address the healthcare crisis.
As a result, insurance costs will continue to grow, and hundreds of thousands of people will be left uncovered.
The only thing we can guess is that our legislators don't really understand the urgency of our healthcare crisis.
And no one lays out that crisis more clearly than Michael Moore in his new film Sicko. Thus, the goal behind the new website, haveyouseensicko.org: to get every legislator in the state to see the movie, so when they come back next session, we can know that ignorance won't be an excuse for avoiding healthcare.
So far, 3 have seen the movie, and 184 are left to go. So check out the site, see which legislators are the first three to see the movie, send your legislators an email, sign the petition, and send the website along to your friends.
Also, you can download that nifty little counter which will change automatically, every time a new legislator sees the movie.
At midnight on Wednesday the legislative session comes to a close. With less than two days till adjournment the legislature has failed to address the current health care crisis (PDF) in Connecticut. Our political leaders’ rhetoric would lead us to believe they understand the need for action, but we have yet to see anything real (may have link of these and other quotes up at www.ccag.net)
“Providing coverage to the uninsured is an urgent need that demands action now.”
“We are all deeply aware of the problem. Now it is time to move the solution forward -- because in a very real sense coverage delayed is coverage denied.”
Senate President Don Williams (The Courant, February 6, 2007):
Our existing health care system is on life support. We must tell the truth about health care, and have the courage to do what is necessary to improve quality, accessibility and affordability.
We should create a Medicare-for-all program in Connecticut to provide a single, statewide insurance program for everyone in our state.
Speaker of the House Jim Amann (The News-Times, July 17, 2006):
In 2007, this [health care] is going to be the biggest issue facing the Democratic caucus and facing the legislature.
Unfortunately it is beginning to look like these may become empty promises instead of real health security for Connecticut’s families. The greedy insurance companies and their front group (which in many ways is just an insurance scam) the Connecticut Business and Industries Association (CBIA) are spending hundreds of thousands of dollars and forcing their employees to contact leaders in order to stop real reforms and protect their profits. The insurance companies have banded together to form a corporate shell that his week released a questionable on-line poll that tried to misrepresent what the fight is about.
It is clear that the Legislature and the Governor are underestimating the public’s desire for real reform. Advocates are demanding the enactment of a public purchasing pool that will significantly limit HMO’s ability to profiteer, expansion of the safety net, and the creation of an authority that will present a plan for universal coverage for next year’s session.
It is time for our leaders to act. If not, next year is the first time legislators will run under a system of public financing and not on the tit of HMOs and lobbyists. Contact Governor Rell (800) 406-1527 and your legislators and let them know Connecticut wants real change. Find your legislators:
Calitics (aka My Left Coast Nutmeg) has some excellent coverage of Sen. Dodd's recent trip out to Cali for the state Democratic convention, including a wide-ranging half-hour video interview:
If you haven't read Peter Urban's excellent article on Chris Shays' flip-flops on Iraq over the past five years, go ahead and do so.
The quotes from Shays in the article - which go back to 2002 - are expectedly all over the place, but I had forgotten just how incredibly wingnutty he was in the run-up to war. This language from his October 2002 speech on the House floor, for instance, where he suggests that if we just had had the time to wait (which, of course, we didn't), we could have proven a 9/11-Saddam link, is just insane:
Some say until Iraq poses an imminent threat to the United States and until he both has a nuclear weapon and threatens to use it, or until we have smoking-gun evidence Saddam Hussein launched the planes into the World Trade Center, we should be content to contain and deter an Iraqi regime openly amassing weapons of mass death....
The mere existence of weapons of mass destruction in the hands of despots, tyrants, and terrorists constitutes an imminent threat to our security. That threat must be addressed before it manifests itself full-blown in a smallpox epidemic or a mushroom cloud.
Shays took a list of the concerns and told the crowd he would address Iraq at the end.
"The problem is, when we talk about Iraq, we don't talk about any other issue on the list," he said.
Meanwhile, possibly at the very moment he was chatting about "other issues," the 100th U.S. serviceman was killed in Iraq in the month April. The Shays town hall tour continues next Friday in Darien and Shelton, and I'm sure you'll hear more about his antics this weekend shortly.
(Another great success from the scrappy and creative team at the Connecticut Working Families Party. Christine Stuart also has great coverage of this event over at CT News Junkie - promoted by Maura)
Our press event today in front of the Aetna building in Hartford was a huge success. Here's a link to the full press release.
The background: Aetna announced their first quarter profits today. From January 1st to March 31st of this year, Aetna made $434 million. That means they are on pace to make even more this year than the $1.7 billion in profits Aetna made last year. This announcement comes pretty close on the heels of the story of Aetna's inflated CEO pay: Ronald Williams makes $30 million a year. It is infuriating that in the middle of Connecticut's healthcare crisis, with hundreds of thousands uninsured, and hundreds of thousands more underinsured, Aetna can be making such extraordinary profits.
So, we wanted to respond to their announcements, and connect high CEO pay and high profits at Aetna and in the health insurance industry in general to the high cost of healthcare for people who live, work and do business.
This morning, about 50 people converged on the lawn of the Aetna building, wearing hospital robes and carrying barf bags, to unfurl a banner reading "Aetna's Profits Are Making Us Sick."
We also had some speakers, including Sharon Paterson Stallings, Working Families Party-elected member of the Hartford Board of Education, Christine Rampulla, a Working Families member, Doctor Larry Deutsch, a Hartford-based physician, and Brian Petronella, co-chair of Connecticut Working Families and President of UFCW local 371.
Have you seen Sicko yet? Well, so far 8 legislators have. And 179 haven't.
Our press event today in front of the Aetna building in Hartford was a huge success. Here's a link to the 
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